Hello, my name is Ian Firkins and I am a very ordinary angler. If there was a school report for fishing, mine would read "tries hard, could do better"! See below my attempts to catch big fish (well, any fish!) of various species from the rivers Trent, Derwent, Dove and Soar.

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15/12/2010 - River Soar

With a return to sub-zero temperatures imminent, thought I'd better make use of the current "mild" conditions and grab a couple of hours somewhere. Headed to River Soar with the temperature in the car reading a balmy 6 degrees. Suprised to find the carpark full, but was relieved to see that they were all tiddler bashing on the canal. Had the whole section of river to myself apart from the Kingfisher and a Little Grebe. River was still slightly coloured, so it was the black pepper spam that came out of the bait bucket. Baited up a few spots then started fishing them in rotation. Had a fish after only a couple of minutes in the first swim - a skinny 2lber. Had a better fish of just over 3lb in swim number three after missing a tentative pull in the previous spot. Blanked in swim number four, then returned to the first spot once again. Again, bite was almost instantaneous and resulted in best fish of the afternoon.

Rub a dub

Tried a couple more spots, but nothing more forthcoming. Think I've already established which are the most consistent swims on the stretch. Just need to catch one a bit bigger now. Oh, and happy birthday Dai if you're reading this on the 16th!